Six Yorkshire companies ranked as fastest-growing in UK

SIX Yorkshire companies have been ranked as Britain’s fastest growing in the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100.

The league table indexes the companies with the fastest-growing sales.

All of Yorkshire’s representatives have been featured on the league before, and on average the six businesses have grown revenues 84% a year over three years.

The Yorkshire businesses total £270m in revenue in the 20th edition of the rankings, and together employ 2,000 people.

Top-ranked is Bedale-based Heck! Food – coming in at number four nationally. Andrew and Debbie Keeble, the founders of the business made appearances on BBC Two’s The Fixer programme in 2014. It was founded in 2012 and since then sales have grown 170% a year to £11.2m this year. In January the company announced that it would be committing £3.2m to a new 30,000 sq ft factory in Bedale .

Harrogate-based High Street TV which is backed by entrepreneur Gordon Black came in in 42nd place, outstripping last year’s ranking of 96. The TV shopping channel business employs 112 people and increased sales 72% over the past three years to £74.6m last year.

Rotherham’s Instantprint, which prints 450,000 business cards a day, increased revenues 54% over the past three years to £19.9m and last year broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest business card.

£125m-turnover Pure Gym also made the list following a major investment from Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy who joined as an adviser last year. Despite abandoning plans to float this year , the group, which employs 960 people, increased revenues by 95% in the period.

Along with Pure Gym, Leeds-based rival Xercise4Less made the list with sales of £28.8m. The company increased sales 60% in the period and received a major investment from the Business Growth Fund .

Last but not least, Birstall-based Pet Brands came in at number 97. The pet accessory manufacturer increased revenues 50% in the three year period and employs 42 people.

Sir Richard Branson of Virgin, the title sponsor for all 20 years, commented:”For 20 years, the Fast Track 100 has checked the country’s entrepreneurial pulse, and highlighted the best and brightest talents emerging from the UK – this year is no exception.

“When I started up in business almost 50 years ago, the word entrepreneur wasn’t really known. Now everyone knows entrepreneurs are the job makers and innovation stimulators of the world. More importantly, many, many more people want to join the club, and change business for good.”

Past stars from Yorkshire include Wakefield-based greeting card retailer Card Factory, which featured ten years ago with sales of £46m and is worth £825m after floating on the stock market in 2014.

Sheffield outdoor equipment retailer GO Outdoors also made the list in previous years and was acquired by JD Sports for £112m this week.

Silver Cross in Skipton, which sells prams and nursery goods in more than 70 countries, was also ranked and was bought by Chinese investor Fosun for a reported £50m in 2015.